Playing games with others is a lot of fun, but sometimes you just want to go it alone and immerse yourself in a single player game. Often lengthy, deep, and rich with narrative, single player adventures offer some of the best experiences and best stories in gaming, and PS4 has them in spades. In this list, we're running through our pick of the best single player games on the platform, and all of them provide excellent tales and memorable moments for the lone wolf gamer.

The plot in Dragon Quest XI is actually a fairly clichéd JRPG story, but it's brilliantly told across the lengthy campaign. Once your character is accompanied by some fantastic party members, things really begin to click into place. The interactions between all the characters is what makes the narrative compelling, giving the events in the game some added weight.

Please note that some of the links on this page are affiliate links. If you click them and make a purchase we may receive a small percentage of the sale which helps support the site. Please read our FTC Disclosure for more information.

With Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, The Chinese Room delivered a walking sim with real heft. As you explore the deserted English village of Yaughton following a mysterious event, the story unfurls in small, disconnected scenes, and you have to put two and two together. It's sombre, atmospheric, really quite dark, and utterly absorbing. Brilliantly acted, well written, and underscored by a gorgeous soundtrack, this is up there with the best in the genre.

One of many games that deals with the subject of sentient artificial intelligence, NieR Automata’s approach couldn’t be more different to the likes of Detroit: Become Human. Essentially an open world action game, the title uses multiple playthroughs and overlapping characters to bring its story to life. It can, at times, be a slog – but stick with it right the way through to its third and final campaign, and you’ll be richly rewarded.

A testament to the power of interactivity when it comes to story-telling, The Invisible Hours sees you play as a voyeur as a murder mystery unfolds in Nikola Tesla’s mansion. You’ll be following famous historical faces around the house, rewinding time to piece parts of the story together. The key mechanic is that you can only ever be in one place at any given time, so just because you’re witnessing a confrontation in the basement, doesn’t mean all is well upstairs.

Schlock horror is the order of the day in Until Dawn, a surprise hit with a contemptible cast of teenagers who you can enjoy being gruesomely picked off one by one. The game twists and turns over the course of its ten hour runtime, and prior to Detroit: Become Human it was the most malleable interactive drama you could buy. Campy acting paired with a laugh-out-loud script make this a must-play – even if the performance capture looks a little dated now.

great list!witcher 3 being nr1 is no suprise altough i have more of a soft spot for the blood and wine story. still the base game is for sure worthy of being nr1 but not just for the story though. the side quests realy made that game as good as can be.

A good selection here - The Witcher 3 is one of my all time faves (despite not having previously been a fan of 'sword & sorcery'), and Yakuza 0 is on my must buy list. Have to admit to not playing God of War yet - I have a soft spot for the early iterations with angry, murderous Kratos! Played both Rapture and Gone Home but didn't really enjoy them - I tried to like them but these kinds of games just don't appeal to me.

I hope that these aren't in order! Horizon: Zero Dawn one of the BEST games this generation and probably 'best' new IP (so far) at 16th has to be a mistake.

There are of course other Single Player games that haven't made this list that are also worth mentioning - you have Wolfenstein (both and the stand alone), Fallout 4, Bloodborne, Doom, AC: Origins, Tomb Raider (both), Infamous (2nd Son and First Light), Uncharted: Lost Legacy & Nathan Drake Collection, Batman: Arkham Knight, Alien Isolation, Evil Within 1 & 2, RE7, Doom, R&C, Crash Bandicoot etc etc etc. I could go on and on but there are a LOT of great Single Player games - even if 1 or 2 do have some MP too. Its certainly not ALL online only service based games at all. Some of the games I have mentioned though also have a much higher metacritic score than some (not all) of the 20 here. Not saying that they don't deserve their place, but that there are a LOT of great single player games that others may prefer to seek out that maybe more suited to what they prefer to play.

Having played most of the games on the list, I can disagree with it a lot, but I'll just go ahead and ask why the hell is The Last of Us second and Witcher 3 first?Don't get me wrong Witcher 3 is a great game (everything-wise) and I love it, but story-wise it falls short compared to... The Last of Us! by the way, is it just me or does The Wild Hunt always wins?

@get2sammyb @LaNooch1978 Ok so Crash and Doom aren't exactly great narratives but a lot of the others I mentioned have good Single Player stories. Tomb Raider for example has a great story. Batman: Arkham Knight has a good story too and most peoples issue is more to do with the Batmobile combat but the story is still good.

I do agree that the Witcher 3 has a fantastic story and that many of its side quests are better written than a lot of other games and their main story. For me, I found the Last of Us quite cliched and predictable - not saying it was 'bad' as a lot of 'good' movies are predictable and have some 'cliches' too. I do agree its well written though and well voiced too which really helps.

Stories though can resonate differently with different people so its subjective. I can't comment on the story of 'Until Dawn' for example because the game-play is absolutely terrible so never got through it so Story is part of what drives me through a game but not the only reason.

@Flaming_Kaiser @LaNooch1978 It is cliche - Main character who is bitter and twisted who, over the course of the story, ends up falling for the other character. OK so its not a romantic love but its still 'love' and that means they can't let them 'go'. Its 'Annie' with a bleaker back-drop and Joel is Oliver Warbucks. Quite a lot of stories have started out with two characters with one being indifferent but by the end they are much closer and Joel can't let Ellie be sacrificed - which was predictable from the start.

If you can't see that, then its not my problem but I knew that Ellie would get to Joel, soften him up so to speak and that Joel wouldn't let Ellie be sacrificed - even for the sake of humanity. Therefore it was predictable. The story, as I have already explained, has been done lots of times - Ultraviolet (2006 film with Mila Jovovich) has something similar with the boy in that the 'boy' is a 'cure' but Mila's character in this is as an 'infected'.

Even ND has said its a 'Love' story and we see Joel go from a Man of little Morals and cold hearted to 'loving' Ellie (as a daughter) through a journey together. Cliched and predictable....

@LaNooch1978 Cliche is perhaps too strong as its not over-used to the point of becoming trite or irritating but it is still quite a commonly used plot line. As such I found it quite predictable but as I also said, that doesn't necessarily make it bad. You can still write a good story, still voice it really well etc to be enjoyable. Most movies do have a predictable ending or relatively common plot line but that doesn't make them bad if the script is good and the actors are too.

I would stick ffx-hd remaster in the list. The story is fantastic once you fully understand what is going on. Its also the best overall complete story in the ff universe without veering into loose ends and red herrings - its all there.

Horrible order for the list but at least it has most of the great games that I like, but I cannot understand why people like What Remains of Edith Finch that's not even a game to me it really is a walking simulator sure it has a nice story but it's not a game at all and at number 10 😂

@NYJetsfan123@GKO900 What Remains was brilliant! Few game segments have moved me the same way that fishery section did. And just the overall tale of that cursed and broken family, told through separate and innovative mini games, separated by a linking narrative while you explore a most unique and creatively constructed estate... it’s one of the best stories this generation.

@get2sammyb Correction, there is 'one' side quest in The Witcher 3. The Bloody Baron which was worth the praise, the rest of it along with the main quest as well as the game in general are incredibly over rated.

@AFCC@Deljo To say I disliked Gone Home would be putting too much emotion into it... It was completely blah to me and lasts about 2 hours... Why the hell is it on this list? And Infamous SS, Elex, fallout 4 are not. How about Toren? That is 100 times the experience of Gone Home.

I could go on but there are a LOT of games that have released that many people seem to have forgotten about - some maybe deservedly so - but with Spider-Man coming up, Arkham Knight has been discussed due to similarities in Combat.

Personally, I enjoyed Arkham Knights Story. I actually enjoyed the Batmobile for everything that wasn't 'specific' to needing the Batmobile. It was great fun driving through the city, launching out and gliding etc but the combat and some Riddles were quite dull. The story though and the world was excellent and was one of the top 10 selling games in the UK. It did come out though in the year of the Witcher 3, Bloodborne, MGSv, Fallout 4....

I really prefer story over gameplay. But, said that, I would add to the list the games that blend the two together un the best way. For me that would be BioShock Collection, Prey, all Dishonored games and Sleeping Dogs. I think they are my favorite games of the last decade.

@BAMozzy I enjoyed the Batmobile as well, after 3 games of not using it I was ready, I think it helps that I didn't drive it unless the game needed me to - the only way to travel round Gotham is to glide through the air

@JoeBlogs I think Journey tells a better story than most games, and it does so without the need for dialogue or narration. Without getting too pretentious, you can almost "feel" what the game's trying to tell you.

Yeah, it has a multiplayer aspect, but it's so invisibly handled that I think it still fits as a "single player" game.

@GKO900 Edith Finch uses gameplay in really clever ways to convey its story. I thought the section in the Cannery was beyond genius; it perfectly encapsulated, through gameplay, that feeling of your mind wandering away. Very clever.

You don't have to be shooting things or jumping on things to be playing a game IMO.

@RedMan33 I loved just driving around the city too and then launching out into a glide and even calling in the Batmobile from the Glide was cool. It was a lot of fun just driving around but the combat was quite poor in it - but then the combat as Batman was so good that it may have made the Batmobile combat seem much worse than it was. I tended to break up the Batmobile combat so I wasn't doing more than 1/2 vehicle combat events together. This made it more tolerable for me but I really enjoyed the story and the loved the way the Joker got to Batman and the way the world could change 1 minute and be back to 'normal' the next.

It got a bad rep because of 1 particular aspect - vehicular combat (although on PC there was a lot more to give it a bad rep) but overall it was a fantastic game and I would still highly recommend it. I completed the story to 100% (and that meant doing ALL the Riddler trophies and side quests) - didn't bother with NG+ though...

@BAMozzy I loved it like I did all the Arkham games (I sit Knight in 2nd place behind Asylum which is my favourite game of all time) went back and got the Platinum for it then restarted another run wearing The Dark Knight suit, it really is a great game

@get2sammyb I agree that Journey is something you 'feel', but that for me makes it more of an experience - almost quasi-religious if we're getting pretentious - than a story. In my opinion, it doesn't fit your description of games that are 'lengthy, deep, and rich with narrative', but, hey, it's your list lol.

The Witcher 3 was my favorite game of all time before God Of War. Not even sure it’s still not my favorite game of all time lol. This is why I love PS though. I’m not a big MP guy and PS4 has all the adventures I absolutely love!

@get2sammyb@Th3solution Well to me gameplay it's the most important thing when I'm playing a game and What Remains of Edith Finch in my opinion does offer an interesting narrative but not a great story since you know from the beginning that pretty much all of them died, they just tell how they died and that it might be a curse which I don't think it is and the ending didn't really wrapped things up and I don't know what gameplay are you talking about i didn't even play this game to be honest i just watched the whole thing in YouTube because i never saw any real gameplay and keep watching until the movie ended because it was too short on top of everything, but to each his own.
Btw Sammy I cannot believe you hate Persona 5 and prefer the visual book of What Remains of Edith

@GKO900 Fair enough. Everyone’s entitled to their wrong opinion. 😉 I’m just kidding. I respect your opinion, although, I do believe if you actually played the game rather than watched it, you’d probably find there was some decent variety to the gameplay. Yes, mostly walking sim type stuff, but when you see each of those stories unfold, there is usually interactive input taking place. I don’t want to spoil it for those who haven’t played it, because it deserves being played without prior knowledge, but it has imo more varied “gameplay” than even something like a straight shooter like COD or a fighter like Tekken. For example, the fishery section of WRoEF played out like nothing I have ever experienced before in many years of gaming. The ending also I found to be quite interesting in the very final scenes.
Anyway, point is, it’s fine if you don’t care for it, to each his own. But I feel the story is definitely top 20.
Interestingly, I quite liked my time with Persona 5 but honestly it started to bore me a little so I never finished it. I got about 40 hours into it before abandoning it. I plan to go back eventually, but gameplay wise it was essentially Persona 4 Golden with a facelift. I haven’t seen the end yet, so I can’t refute it’s placement on this list, but if it has a conclusion anywhere like P4G, it is very deserving of a top 10 nod.

@Th3solution Don't get me wrong I love story driven games but WRoEF needed true gameplay one good example is Life Is Strange that game has the time travel mechanic giving you choices and has little bit of puzzles enough to make it a game in WRoEF you only have limited movements like the frog in the bathtub an the tiny maze as for Persona 5 you know what they say if the gameplay is not broken why fix it and they did actually improve a lot of stuff as for story I won't spoil anything but I recommend you to give it another try to finish it

@Splints hey yo...Fallout 4 is terrible but yeah it has more gaming content than Gone Home but since this is am article about the story...Fallout 4 is bland and a step back for the series honestly!But I agree I would put some games above Gone Home! But at the same time I get why it is on the list!

The vanishing of ethan carter should be on this list imo. Or maybe I missed it in all the pages? Near perfect graphics, a deep non lineair story, a game that "doesn't hold your hand". Storywise much better than some games mentioned.